The Shadow Over Mobius
by TailsLovesCosmo
Summary: While trying to stop Dr. Eggman, Sonic and his friends run across something far worse in an old town of secrets and mystery. Amy attempts to use an ancient book to win Sonic's love but instead begins something they might not be able to stop.


THE SHADOW OVER MOBIUS

Chapter One

"The First Reading of the Book"

We live on a placid island of ignorance in the midst of black seas of infinity, and it was not meant that we should voyage far. - H.P. Lovecraft

The fat man moved heavily through the old streets of the ancient seaport. A strong breeze blew the heavy grey cloak he wore, briefly exposing a red shirt with large square buttons and gold filigree. Far off, he watched the sky light up with distant lightning. He cursed at the weather. The one thing about the world he couldn't control. Yet. But perhaps soon, that too would be within his grasp.

He turned left, entered a narrow alley. The thought of muggers never occurred to him. People didn't attack him, he attacked people. But despite great victories over the years, he had also suffered great setbacks. The thought galled him. But if he found what he'd hoped for, what his sources had told him was here in this old seaport, his failures might finally become a thing of the past.

Had he been interested in sightseeing, he might have noted the small windows, crooked gables, and antedated chimneys he passed. But his interests were on other things. At last he came to a small building, the walls leaning crazily, as if gravity were trying to pull it down and be rid of it.

The fat man wrinkled his large red nose in disgust as he pushed open the door. Bells tinkled, but he only noted the odor of dust and mildew. If what he wanted was here, it might already be too decayed to be useful to him!

Inside, he noted the building was dirty and unkempt. Clearly the proprietor had little regard for his customers, or even his own self-respect.

Said proprietor, a possum, soon stepped from a back room. He was old and grey, and wore a somewhat cloudy pair of pince-nez. He walked slowly towards his desk, hobbling slightly.

"Well, what kin I do for ye?" the possum asked. "Ef ye lookin' fer old books or curious things, ye've come to the right place, me lad."

"Actually," the fat man said, "I _am_ looking for a book. A very special book. The Cultes des Goules by the Comte d'Erlette. My resources tell me you are in possession of such a volume."

The old possum looked around nervously. "'Tis not healthy to know, or speak of such things," he said in a low voice. "And I've no idea what ye are talkin' about."

"Now, now," the fat man said, wagging his finger at the old possum, "it's not nice to tell lies, you know." He reached into a pocket in his cloak, pulled out a handful of golden rings which he set on the counter. The possum looked at them with interest, but at last shook his head.

"Can't help ye," he said with a shrug. "Ne'er seen this here Ghoul book ye're talkin' 'bout. 'Sides, the shop's closin' now. Ye'll have t'go!" He pushed the rings towards the human.

"I don't think so, my furry friend!" the fat man said, no longer smiling. He grabbed the possum's shirt, lifting him off his feet. "I want that book! You'll give it to me willingly, or I'll take it!"

"Now see here!" the old possum cried, pulling himself free and backing away from the huge human, nearly falling over backwards as he did. "Ye can't just barge in here and take whate'er ye like!"

The fat man laughed. "Ho ho ho ho! Of course I can!" He slammed the possum against the wall. The animal staggered to a desk, opened a drawer. He pulled out a gun, clearly intending to use it.

Except the chance never arrived. The fat man pulled a small device out of a pocket and touched it to the possum's back. There was a buzzing sound and the odor of burning fur. The marsupial slumped to the floor. The fat man returned the taser to his pocket.

"Now…let's see if I can find proof it was here!" the fat man said, stroking his ridiculously overgrown orange mustache as he stepped over the possum's still form. He started digging through the papers he found inside of the old chestnut desk. He disdainfully threw most of them onto the floor: lists of purchased items, descriptions of the conditions of said items once they'd reached the shop, records for tax purposes, recent sales. None of these interested him. He cared about the future, not the past. He finally found a receipt that stated a shipment had arrived from the East recently. Perhaps the book had been in that shipment. But he was unable to find anything else of interest.. At last he slammed the desk drawer shut with disgust.

"Very well, then," he said angrily, "I'll find it for myself!" He began to search the shop, his eyes scanning all of the shelves that reached nearly to the ceiling of its bric-a-brac. There were musty bottles and figurines of strange creatures everywhere. So much to go through. But he could afford to be patient if it netted him results. And knowing it was a book he was looking for made his search a bit easier, although the books were everywhere, laying about in piles on many of the shelves, not to mention more that lay in heaps on the floor. In his eagerness, he smashed many an odd piece of merchandise, but failed to give it a second thought. While an antiquarian would have found all of the contents of the old shop fascinating, Eggman saw everything but the object of his search as old, worthless junk.

Despite his best efforts, the book failed to materialize. He checked the paper again. Was it a fake? Had someone made this to mess with his mind? Anger built up inside of the fat man. Everyone was always trying to cross him. Sheer jealousy it was, for wasn't he the most brilliant being in the world? Then he remembered briefly seeing the records of items sold. Was it possible what he wanted had already been purchased by someone? He searched through the papers he'd tossed willy-nilly about the floor. Chances were, there'd be no record of who had purchased the thing he desired. But then, he was Doctor Ivo Robotnik, the Eggman, the scourge of Mobius. If necessary, he could have his robots tear down every building in the world to search for it.

At last he found the records he was seeking. "Damn it! A book was purchased not two hours ago!" He cursed under his breath as he turned to the possum to try to force him to talk, only to find he was no longer there! A quick search showed the back door was open.

"He must have recovered sooner than I thought and made a run for it!" he said to himself. He slammed his left fist into his right hand. "That's what I get for being nice! Now, how can I find out who bought that book?" He began to gather the papers together. While it was extremely doubtful that he could get any clues from any of them, he'd run them through his computer anyway. With something this important, he couldn't afford to not be thorough. In the wrong hands, such an item could upset the balance of the world.

Of course, not for one moment did the doctor consider the possibility that having and using it himself could cause any disaster. But then, wasn't he the most intelligent being on the planet?

As Eggman hurried from the old shop through the front door, intending to send a robot through town for the book, he failed to notice the possum quietly slip back into the shop through the still open back door. The animal shut the door, then crossed the shop slowly. He lifted a dingy curtain carefully and saw the fat man just disappearing into the distance. He released the curtain, and went to get a broom. He had noticed immediately that the fat man was the last sort that should possess such a book. He could and would use it to make hell on Mobius. The silly hedgehog girl that had just bought it had assumed it would contain love charms to make a boy fall for her. At worst, the two of them would either be found dead or else vanish off the face of the planet, and whoever found the book would probably assume it was junk. Either way, it was out of his hands, and he was glad to have it gone. He whistled as he swept the floor.

The pink hedgehog hurried down the narrow street. It looked like rain, and she had no interest in being caught in it. She wasn't a plant, like her alien friend whose behavior she had never really understood. A cold wind blew across her face. She shivered and pulled on the hood of her cloak. Since she was covered up, and nearly always wore gloves, she didn't notice until spots began to appear on the wrapped package she carried in her arms that it had begun to rain. She unbuttoned her coat and stuffed the package inside, then quickly refastened it, trembling at the sudden cold.

Thunder rumbled in the distance. The girl quickened her steps. The streets were deserted, not a single happy shout from a child, or a yell from a cranky old man. Not even unwanted advance from a sleazy street punk. Amy Rose wished she'd never come to this old town. But Tails had tracked Eggman's activities to this place, for what purpose he hadn't been able to even guess. Amy suspected he was simply tired of trying to take over the world, and wanted a break. As she looked about at the crumbling old buildings with their gable windows and peeling paint, she thought distastefully that he could have come up with a better place. The beach, for instance. The odor of unwashed clothing and rat droppings came to her. She wrinkled her nose. _I'll be glad to get out of this place and go back home! If we don't find a reason for Eggman being here soon, I'm going to persuade Sonic and Tails to take us home-with my pikopiko hammer if necessary!_

Amy moaned as the rain grew worse. She was going to get completely drenched! Why had she decided to go sightseeing when she'd seen the clouds covering the sky, and heard Tails' report of an approaching storm? And why had she stopped to look at cheap costume jewelry, knowing that she had an important purchase on her? No one to blame but herself, although Amy was certain she could find someone else to blame if she really put her mind to it.

Amy squealed as the sky was lit up with lightning. The thunder boomed in her ears. Although the girl was in no danger from the storm, she hadn't been paying attention when Tails had explained, first to Cream a couple of years ago, then to Cosmo more recently, how one could tell the distance lightning was from them by counting the seconds between the lightning flash and the crash of thunder. But then, science didn't interest her. Romance and happily ever afters were what she cared about. Wasn't that why she had chased Sonikku Parlouzer since she was eight years old, because despite his constant running away from her, she _knew_ it was their destiny for them to be together? Hadn't the cards proven her right again and again?

Amy was shivering when she finally saw the lights of the inn where her group was staying. It was scarcely any newer than the truly ancient buildings she had passed on her way. A small building initially, with wings built onto each end, raised to three stories. They had gotten the entire place for the week because it was empty, and none of them were surprised that the place had had no other occupants. The windows were large, the lights from inside making them look like glowing yellow eyes, staring at her. The front door, weather-beaten and slightly warped so that it stuck when opened, seemed like a yawning mouth ready to swallow her up when she entered. The inside was just as old and frightfully dusty and cold, with old furniture that looked like it would collapse if you sat on it. Amy forced such gloomy thoughts from her mind. She didn't want to have any nightmares.

Amy raced for the front steps, her feet splashing in puddles. Another bolt of lightning was followed almost immediately by a booming peal of thunder. The storm was getting closer! Amy at last reached the old wooden steps leading up to the door. She held onto her purchase with one hand while she held the banister with the other. The steps, slick with rain, were slippery, and she nearly fell once, banging her elbow hard against the handrail as she caught herself.

"I hate this stupid place!" she sobbed, as her elbow seemed to catch fire. "Ah! I hit my funny bone! Owie!" Well, if Sonic was there, she could ask him to kiss it and make it better. She hoped he wasn't running around in this downpour. Not only could he catch pneumonia, but at the speeds he usually ran, if he stepped on a slippery spot and lost his footing, he could seriously injure himself.

Amy fumbled at the door. It was stuck again. She knocked just as lightning lit up the sky, followed almost instantly by the roar of the answering thunder.

The door was opened by an orange and tan-colored rabbit wearing a red dress with a blue tie. Beside her hovered an odd blue creature wearing a bow tie. "Oh, Amy! Good, you're back! Come on in! You must be cold!" She stepped back, pulling the door open wider to let her best friend inside of the building.

"Thanks, Cream," Amy said, shivering as she stepped inside and pushed the door shut with her foot. "Brrr! It's freezing out there!" She opened her coat and removed her package.

Cream looked at the package. Her lips parted, as if she intended to ask about it. Then she shook her head. "Let's get you warm, Amy!" She took her friend's free hand and led her to the fireplace. There was no air conditioning or heating in the old building, and their fox friend had been forced to build a fire. He sat on an old, threadbare greenish-grey couch, a tail laying across the back of the couch on either side of him, for he had two. Beside him sat a creature clearly not from the same world. Flower buds seemed to grow from the sides of her head, and only the closest perusal of her noseless face would have turned up the presence of two tiny slits for breathing. Her green coloring and the consistency of her face, hands, and hair showed that her ancestors had been some type of plant. As Cream dragged Amy to the fire, this girl jumped up.

"Oh, Amy!" she cried. "Tails and I were just about to go out and look for you! It's been raining for awhile now, and we were worried!"

"I'm fine, Cosmo," Amy assured both girls, giving first Cream, then Cosmo, a hug. She looked down at Tails, who was still sitting on the couch. "Ahem."

Cream gasped. "I knew it! You're catching a cold, Amy!" She reached up to feel the hedgehog girl's forehead. Amy pushed her hand away.

"I'm not coming down with anything," she insisted. She turned back to Tails. "A gentleman always stands up when a lady enters the room."

Tails looked around. "Who came in?" he asked. Then he noticed the glare in Amy's eyes. He quickly hopped to his feet. "I mean…hi, Amy!"

Amy nodded in satisfaction. "That's more like it," she said, waving her hand as if dismissing him. "You may regain your seat, kind sir."

"Oh brother," Tails muttered to himself as he sat down.

Cosmo sighed. "Amy, you shouldn't tease Tails like that. He really thinks you're going to hit him."

Amy smiled at the fox. "Don't worry," she assured him. "I haven't even started to take out my pikopiko hammer since we got to this place." Her face fell. "Actually, I'm surprised I haven't needed to defend myself. This entire town gives me the willies."

"I know what you mean," Cream said, looking towards the window. "Every time I've tried to talk to someone, they've looked at me strangely, then ran off, or pretended they couldn't hear me."

"You too?" Cosmo asked. She had crossed the living room, and was now standing by the kitchen door. "People have behaved the same way towards me, but I assumed it was because I'm an alien plant." She looked at Tails. "But Cream makes friends everywhere she goes, with Mobian or alien. It's disquieting that people would run from her."

"Well," Tails said, placing his hand under his chin, "I noticed the same thing when I went to the newsstand. I thought it was strange, but then, this is a small, closed community. The people here probably not only grew up here together, but they can probably trace everyone's family tree back several generations. They could just be shy of strangers."

"Say, Amy," Cream said, unable to resist asking any longer, "what's that you're carrying?"

Amy looked down at the package. She'd forgotten about it since she'd come inside. Now she checked it carefully to make sure it hadn't been damaged by the rain. She opened the paper bag in her hands, and took out the brown paper wrapped item. She scanned it for water spots, then unwrapped it. She grinned as she felt three pairs of eyes on her. Unlike the others in the room, Amy loved being the center of attention. She at last held up the book.

"Isn't it cool?" she asked, giving each of her friends a chance to look at it.

"A book?" Tails asked. "What sort of book is it, Amy?"

"It's a book of…magic!" Amy said dramatically, holding it out towards them.

Tails blinked. "Magic?" He shook his head. "Amy, really, most of those things are fakes! Remember the book you bought on Marmoline? 'Fifty spells for all occasions?' Not one of them worked!"

Amy shrugged. "So the book was fake. The old guy was a real fortune teller. He predicted that you and Cosmo would get together. He even predicted that she would die." Everyone winced. The plant girl's death was a part of their lives that no one wanted to remember but none of them could ever forget. "Sorry, Cosmo," Amy said, looking at her friend. "But we know that magic's real. Cosmo's here, and she's alive!"

Tails sighed, covering his face with his hand. Amy had been telling fortunes for years, and rarely got them right. .

"You really shouldn't meddle in such things, Amy," Cosmo said softly, shaking her head. "Please, it's dangerous to deal with forces beyond this world. I was dead, and there was a lot I was never told, even though they knew I'd forget most of it!"

"I can handle it," Amy insisted, running her hand over the cover. She sat down in an old chair and opened the book. She read the frontispiece:

"I have no doubt the original author, the mad and doomed Comte d'Erlette, must have been hounded to his death by those that realized just what it was that he was writing! Certainly, the fact that I could never find a complete, or even partially complete copy of his book shows that it was unsafe to have such an item in one's possession. The contents of this book were gathered from around the world on many occasions, finding a page or two or three here and there in old shops and museums and even crypts. Even so, this book is woefully incomplete. Yet regardless, I have heard things scratching at my window at night, and smelled odd scents of mold and rot. I fear I am not long for this world. May I have the strength of will to dispose of it before it is too late!"

Amy looked up from her reading with a disgusted look on her face. "This is just a book of ghost stories or something! I was hoping for love potions or romance charms!"

Tails rolled his eyes. "Honestly, Amy! Most magic is fake! Outside of the chaos emeralds, we've rarely seen anything really supernatural!"

"I know," Amy said. "But still, you'd think in a spooky old place like this, they'd have _something_ legit!"

Tails sighed. "Have fun with your new book, Amy. I'm going to do some tinkering in the garage." The fox had set up a small workshop in the empty building.

"Don't work too hard, Tails," Cosmo said, kissing him on the cheek. "I'll let you know when Sonic or Knuckles shows up."

"See you later, Cosmo," Tails said, blushing. "Bye, Cream, Amy."

"Bye, Tails," Cream said. "I'll be making lunch in a couple of hours."

Amy, no longer cold, had gone to her room and begun turning the pages of her new purchase while the others were talking. Cream and Cosmo, curious, followed her. The pages were old and slightly yellowed at the edges. "Interesting," she said, more to herself than to the other girls, "this book talks about monsters and strange places, but it's all serious talk with big words and paragraphs that run for most of a page. I guess this guy was trying to make it seem like an encyclopedia of real horrors." She turned some more pages. "There _are_ a few spells, but nothing we'd want to try. Here's one on 'How to raise the dead and make them do thy bidding.' Guess that means make zombies, huh?"

Cream wrinkled her nose in distaste. "That's not a nice book, Amy," she said. "I think you should put it away now before we all start having nightmares. Don't you agree, Cheese?"

"Chao chao!" the blue creature, now floating over Amy's bed, agreed, nodding emphatically. The rabbit's ability to make sense of what seemed like a single word, repeated over and over, fascinated everyone that knew her. When asked, Cream could only shrug and insist that she could understand everything the chao said.

"It's not good to meddle with such things," Cosmo warned Amy again. It was, naturally, a waste of time, and all three girls knew it. Amy would do whatever Amy chose to do, and nothing could change her mind.

The hedgehog continued to thumb through the pages. "This sounds interesting! 'How to summon and bind spirits to thy will!'"

"Amy, no!" Cosmo cried, trying to take the book from her. "Please leave the spirits of the departed to rest in peace!"

Amy pulled the book away from her friend. The plant girl lost her balance and fell onto Amy's bed. "I said it sounded interesting! I never said I'd try it!" She sat down at her dresser and turned some more pages. "Hah!" she cried, placing her finger on a line in the book. "'How to gain thy heart's desire!' Perfect!"

"Seriously, Amy," Cosmo insisted. "Something about that book disturbs me. I can sense…something not of this world."

Cosmo rolled her eyes. "You're sensing yourself!" Amy said. "You're an alien from another planet, remember?" She scanned the spell, hoping it wouldn't be too difficult to try it.

Cosmo shook her head. "No, Amy, that's not what I mean." She climbed off of Amy's bed and stepped up behind her. "That book is unnatural," she insisted. "Being so near to it is upsetting to me!"

"Then stay away from it!" Amy told her. "And watch what you say. You're going to scare Cream!"

"Chao chao chao chao chao!" Cheese moaned, looking up at Cream. The little bunny seemed surprised, then nodded.

"Amy," Cream said, "Cheese says he can sense it too! That book is bad!"

"Chao chao chao!" Cheese cried. Cream gasped..

"Seriously?" The chao nodded. Cream walked over to the other side of Amy. "Cheese says it's evil, and should be burned!"

"You guys have been watching too many monster movies!" Amy insisted, slamming the book shut.

"I don't watch scary movies," Cream insisted. "I did once, and had nightmares!"

"Me neither," Cosmo said. "Please, Amy, I'm afraid! You know Cheese! He never says anything is evil!"

"You're all sissies!" Amy told them. She didn't know why she'd said that. Cream and Cosmo were her best friends. It was as if the book were calling to her, and she had to answer its call.

"We should take it back home and let Tails' Uncle Merlin look at it," Cosmo suggested. "He might be able to tell us if it's safe to use or not."

Amy pouted. "I can do that!" she insisted. "I know a lot about magic!"

"Reading cards and dowsing for water are one thing," Cosmo told her in a low voice. "Awakening forces you don't understand can be devastating! What if you summon something like Black Doom?"

A chill ran down Amy's spine. None of them would ever forget Black Doom. He had proven to be even more of a monster than Cosmo's late father, Dark Oak. Cream squealed at the sound of his name. Cheese hid inside of his friend's dress.

"All right, all right!" Amy said, opening a drawer in the dresser and placing the book inside. She slammed the drawer shut, then stood up. "Let's get lunch started, girls!"

Cream and Cosmo looked at each other. Then they turned back to their friend. "But…it's much too early for lunch, Amy," Cream pointed out.

"Well, I'm bored," Amy said, crossing to her window and lifting the curtain. The sky was as grey as twilight, and the rain was pouring outside. "This place is so drab and ugly and dull," she said. "I can't stand this old town!" She left her room, the other girls following.

"I don't like it either, Amy," Cream admitted. "It's spooky and gives me the shivers! But if Dr. Eggman came to a place like this, then you can bet he's up to no good, and we have to try to stop him before he does something terrible!"

"I'd rather be home as well, Amy," Cosmo piped up. "But Cream's right. There's no telling what he's planning! Tails and Sonic and Knuckles are here trying to stop him, and I'll stay as long as Tails does. As much as I hate conflict, it's a relief to know that I _can_ fight to defend others if I absolutely must!"

Amy shook her head. "You guys," she said. "I guess I've taught you well. You're right, it's a woman's job to support her man, no matter what!" She looked towards the front door. "I just wish Sonic would show up already! Where has he been all this time, anyway?"

As if in answer, there was suddenly a knock on the front door. Amy squealed and nearly ran over Cosmo, who had to move out of the way. The hedgehog ran through the inn and threw open the door. "Sonic!" she squeaked, wrapping her arms around the heavily bundled figure in the doorway.

"Hey!" came a familiar voice that was obviously not Sonic's. "What is your problem? Let go of me!"

"Oh!" Amy said, releasing the figure, which pushed past her into the main room. "Sorry 'bout that, Knuckles! I thought you were Sonic!"

"Seriously, do I look anything at all like him?" Knuckles demanded, pulling off the heavy coat he was wearing. "Phew! What a storm! I'm drenched to the skin!"

"I'll make you some hot cocoa right away," Cream offered, running to the kitchen. "Come on, Cheese!"

"Did you discover anything, Knuckles?" Cosmo asked, taking his hat and coat and laying them near the fireplace, careful not to get either the items of clothing or herself too close.

"About all I could discover is that this town is damned unfriendly!" Knuckles said, sitting down by the fire to remove his boots. "Nobody would talk to me! One old woman kept muttering something about 'things out in the water,' or some such foolishness!" He tossed one of the boots across the floor, where it just missed the table. He started pulling on the other boot.

"Don't tell me the water is bad here, too!" Cosmo moaned.

"Who knows?" Knuckles said, tossing the second boot so that it landed across the first boot. "But I was down at the waterfront, and the water didn't look to savory. I wouldn't drink it if I were you."

Cosmo sighed. As a plant, she loved water. Having to avoid it was not something she looked forward to at all. "Why would anyone live in such a place?" she asked. "Or allow their homes to become so polluted and…ugly?"

Knuckles shrugged. "I've never been able to understand why people do things like that," he admitted. "It's one of the reasons why I prefer living by myself on Angel Island."

"Where's Sonic?" Amy demanded, looking out the window at the rain falling on the old rooftops. "He shouldn't be out there, running around in the rain!"

"I checked the waterfront for news of anything odd going on," Knuckles stated, removing his gloves and rubbing his thickly callused hands, from which he'd gotten his name, together over the crackling fire. "And all I could find out is that everybody in this place is odd! Sonic went to check the mayor's office and the library for any news of something being discovered recently."

"Well, it can't be a chaos emerald," Cosmo said, sitting back down on the couch. "Tails has them in his workshop." She looked over at the kitchen, from which Cream and Cheese had not yet returned. "Knuckles?" she said softly. "Do you sense anything…unnatural…about this town? I don't mean the unfriendliness, I mean…"

"Did I get the feeling I was being watched while I was traveling?" Knuckles asked. "Sure did. I got some really crazy vibes out there. I tell you, Cosmo, if I didn't know Eggman was up to something we'll need to stop sooner or later, I'd get out of town so fast, the suction would pull you guys out behind me!"

As Cream and Cosmo spoke to Knuckles, none of them noticed Amy Rose quietly slip away and return to her room.

…

At that time, Sonic was in the town hall, trying to find someone to speak to him. The library had been a dead end, closed and long abandoned. There were only a few people in the town hall. A clerk who was going through a filing cabinet, a woman looking through some papers, a janitor sweeping the floor. A couple of customers waiting in line that avoided looking at him, although his eyes were quick enough to catch them more than once doing exactly that while pretending they weren't.

"Um…excuse me," Sonic said. "I'm looking for somebody in charge here…"

The three employees ignored him. Sonic was getting pretty annoyed about that. People had been pretending like they couldn't see or hear him since he got to this town. What was up with these people?

Sonic drummed his fingers on a desk and looked up at the old clock on the wall. Patience was a virtue Sonic the Hedgehog had never learned.

Finally deciding he'd waited long enough, Sonic turned to leave the building. As he was stepping outside, he noticed the janitor, now wearing a coat with the collar turned up, sweeping around the town hall, under the wide overhead canopy. It had looked like rain when he had gone inside, and it was now pouring. At Amy Rose's insistence, Sonic had worn a coat, although his high constitution and metabolism made it very difficult for him to get sick. He decided to make one last effort to get some answers and walked over to the custodian.

"Excuse me," Sonic said. "I'm trying to get some information about this town and any strangers that might have arrived recently."

"Not too many strangers come through town," the janitor said, sweeping more slowly. He looked back towards the building, as if afraid of being caught talking to Sonic. "I only came out this way to meet some relatives I never saw before, and get a part time job while I was here, and it's a lousy, poor paying one. I'll be getting out of here in a couple of days. Going back home and forgetting I was ever here."

"Don't care much for the folks around here?" Sonic asked, standing on one foot and removing a shoe as if he'd found a rock in it. Sonic had excellent balance, which was a good thing, since he had a feeling he didn't want to be touching the ground in this village with his bare fur and skin.

"No sir," the janitor said, acting as if he were checking the flags outside the door. "Folks around here aren't friendly, and strangers have been known to disappear around here. Like I said, I only got this job here because I have relatives I'd never seen before. And they're not exactly the sort of relatives you'd want to have, if you know what I mean. Odd people, tell me to stay in my room at night and not answer the door if somebody knocks. Really late I can hear frogs and whippoorwills going on most of the night. I'll be glad when I can get out of here. I'll live off the land before I'll stay here much longer. Supposed to be some big festival the end of April, a couple of days from now. I was looking forward to it at first, but now I think I'll stay in my room and avoid the whole thing. If I was you, stranger, I'd be out of town by then."

He looked back towards the door again. "I gotta be going," he said. "You got any further questions, you should ask old Augustus Wardle. He's a very nervous old goat, doesn't trust people, but you can probably get him to talk to you if you offer him a drink. He wanders around town a lot, often spends his days in the park. See you around." He hurried back inside.

Sonic hopped on one foot as he put his other shoe back on. "Okay," she said, speeding off, "this place is officially starting to creep me out! I should head back and tell the girls to get out of town! But first I'll try to find that old goat and look around this dump for Eggman."

…

Once alone, Amy sat on her bed for awhile, thinking about Sonic. How he was still ignoring after all these years. Her eyes crossed the room to where she'd left the book.

"It won't hurt just to read one spell!" she muttered to herself, getting up and walking to the book. She picked it up and opened it, looking at the door to her room as if expecting Cream or Cosmo to be standing there with their arms folded, just waiting for her to make a move towards her purchase. But of course, there was no one there.

Amy turned the pages until she found the last spell she'd read. She went over it. The spell didn't seem too complicated, and it promised excellent results. Amy sat down on her bed and began to read it out loud.

Nothing appeared to happen, but then, Sonic wasn't there, so she couldn't be certain. When she finished the spell, she put the book away, then headed back to the living room to talk to her friends. A flighty girl, Amy Rose's interest had already moved on to other things.

Far out to sea, deep underwater, something that had long slept began to slowly stir, but not awaken. Not yet at least.

To be continued…


End file.
